CaptureOne 12 - PhotoMechanic 6

[mmj]

Hello
Can anybody please tell me how to keep color rating and star rating in sync between C1 V 12 and PM 6.

Thanks for your help

[Stephen_C]

I'm sorry for a rather unhelpful reply...but I can't make that work either. In fact, I do invariably set both in Capture One but, for the purposes of trying to help, tried doing so in Photo Mechanic 6 Plus (the beta of which I'm using). Even though, in PM6 > Preferences > General, I've set the colour classes to Capture One they do not carry over to Capture One 12. The rating does not carry over in any event.

Maybe the only assistance this post provides is the knowledge that you're not alone with the problem.

Stephen

[Perttis]

I know that if your language is not english there will be problems with those labels ( those are like blue, green etc...as text, and might be something else if not english)
 
My capture one metadata settings:
AutoSync Sidecar XMP : NONE
Prefer Emebedded XMP over Emebedded IPTC : not checked
Prefer Sidecar XMP over Emebedded Metadata :  checked

PM set to use Capture one labels and "Synchronize Color Class with IPCT/XMP label" is checked

[Stephen_C]

Hmm, it may well be something to do with the Capture One settings. However, I'm using a Leica Q2 and consequently the "RAW" DNG files. What has worked for me transferring IPTC data from Photo Mechanic 6 is the following Capture One settings:

Auto Sync sidecar XMP: Load
Prefer embdeded XMP over Embedded IPTC: checked
Prefer sidecar XMP over Embedded Metadata: checked

However, I can't now recall whether I had to use all of those settings in order properly to read old Canon 1DX Mk II sidecar files that applied to a lot of my photos...as well as to read the metadata added by PM6 to the Leica files. I should say that I see all the PM6 metadata in the Leica DNG files in Capture One—except the colour class and rating.

Stephen

[Odd Skjaeveland]

Can anybody please tell me how to keep color rating and star rating in sync between C1 V 12 and PM 6.

The simple approach is to always do your metadata work in PM and have C1 reload metadata if/when you want them in C1. I don't feel that as a loss, PM is (by far IMO) the better metadata tool.

PM will pick up raw file metadata that C1 writes to sidecar XMP files, but not for DNG raw files (more below).

Color tags must have the same textual name in both applications. The PM classic (try it) green tag has textual label "Typical". That goes not spell "Green" which is what C1 recognizes. The actual color shown is irrelevant if I remember this correctly. Luckily, PM allows you to customize color labels. C1 does not.  The color ordering (number 1-8) may also play a role in metadata exchange, but I can not remember if C1 is among the affected applications. My color label setup in PM (Preferences, General) for use with C1 is:

1: Red
2: Green
3: Blue
4: Pink
5: Purple
6: Orange
7: Yellow
8: Do not use with C1

In C1 (Preferences, Image) I have

Auto Sync sidecar XMP : None
Unchecked: Prefer Embedded XMP over embedded IPTC
Unchecked: Prefer Sidecar XMP over embedded metadata

Whenever I want to reload metadata (from PM) in C1, I select Reload Metadata in C1 (three dots in Metadata tool)
 
Whenever I want to export metadata from C1 (to PM, say) , I select Sync Metadata in C1. It works for raw files except DNGs. PM does not pick up metadata from DNG sidecars. PM expects DNG metadata to be embedded in the DNG file. C1 never updates (writes to) an image file regardless of file type, C1 Sync Metadata writes metadata to the sidecar XMP file only. I see this issue as a flaw in PM. CB knows about it, but I do not expect a fix.

You can turn on auto reload or full sync in C1 preference Auto Sync sidecar XMP. It works, but previous versions of C1 constantly spent a noticeable amount resources staying in sync so I turned it off. I never tried automatic reload or full sync or with C1 version 12.

My advice would be to start with the simple approach, then experiment with settings in PM and C1 to close in on where you want to be.

[Stephen_C]

That's a really helpful exposition, thank you! As things are (and because I don't use ratings and colour classes in Photo Mechanic) I'm happy enough just to rely on Photo Mechanic Plus to enter all relevant IPTC metatdata about the shot (caption, location, GPS, etc.) and to keyword in Photo Mechanic. All of that is picked up by Capture One and I've accepted that I'll not be able to go in reverse (i.e. to pick up in Photo Mechanic any changes to DNG files I make in Capture One).

Stephen